When Push Comes To Shove

You are an artist on the brink. You’ve carefully nurtured and protected your ideas, keeping them secret, waiting for the right moment to release them into the world. Silently, you’ve prepared a significant body of work, one that you feel describes your identity, your values, your passions, your spirit.

Deep inside, you know it’s time.
You must make the leap into unknown territory.

There are a million concerns to consider, yes. But there is only one choice to make, out of those million concerns: the choice to matter.

**

What you create is an exchange. Your creations aren’t yours, ultimately speaking. They are a way for your audience to know themselves. In an exhibition, it may seem that the artist is speaking to the viewer. In reality, the viewer is communing with himself, creating meaning out of your work.

**

daylight

and these are the pleasures of your craft:
an old bottle with a brush;
a canvas on an easel, primed and stretched;
the search for secret colors, a night of silence;
and with daylight, the alchemy of a completed work.

© Jojo Ballo 2006